Revelation 8

The seven trumpets are the short story beginning in 1914 and ending at the battle of Armageddon. The first five trumpets have already happened, while we await the sixth to take place. Though the trumpets happened in order of 1-7 chronologically, I would like to talk about them in order of most recognizable. We will start with the third trumpet.

Revelation 8:10-11

10 And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;

11 And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.

I believe that the third trumpet was the Chernobyl nuclear accident that occurred on April 26, 1986. Allow me to explain why… Chernobyl was used by the Russians for medicinal purposes. Wormwood turns the tongue black and the Russian word for black is chernyy. Consequently, when they discovered this, they started calling wormwood, Chernobyl. On July 26,1986, the New York Times published an article titled, The Talk of Moscow, Chernobyl fallout, Apocalyptic tell of fear. In the article, a prominent Russian writer, who was an atheist, produced a tattered old Bible and read Revelation 8:10-11, concerning the star falling from Heaven, called wormwood. After that, in a dictionary, he showed the Ukrainian word for wormwood was Chernobyl.

In the book, The Truth About Chernobyl, written by a scientist who was at Chernobyl, he describes the events that took place at the Chernobyl power plant. On April 26, 1986 at 1:26 AM, a Russian scientist who was in charge at the Chernobyl power plant, decided to conduct some experiments. To do so, he had to disconnect some of the safety features. He did so, then gave the instruction to “raise the rods” to allow the nuclear process to begin. Though he was watching his gauges, he did not catch the malfunction in time, and within 30 seconds, the power plant began to heat up and the reactor began to overheat. Suddenly, the plant exploded. The first explosion knocked the 2-million-pound concrete lid off the building. The second explosion drove a nuclear cloud one mile into the air. The atmosphere was subject to a full nuclear fire. It was the worst nuclear disaster in the history of the world. Before it was over, the Chernobyl explosion had released 10 times more radiation as had been released by the bombing of Hiroshima in WWII.

In a 1993 documentary produced by Films by the humanities and sciences, Titled, Chernobyl, the bitter taste of wormwood. The main message from the video stated, “it was the waters that had made the Chernobyl nuclear accident so deadly”. When the nuclear cloud was driven into the air, the winds carried the cloud into Sweden, then into Italy, into Germany and across Great Britain. As the rain fell, the waters filled up with the nuclides and all who ingested the water, ingested that nuclide. When nuclide is ingested, it goes into the persons bone marrow, and eventually causes a person to develop cancer.

More recently on April 26, 2011, on the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear accident, the presidents of Ukraine and Russia laid the foundation stone for the memorial that was built in remembrance of the first responders to the Chernobyl nuclear accident. The name of the memorial chosen was, The Star of Wormwood Memorial. Also, one of the main attractions at the memorial is a 30ft tall iron angel blowing a trumpet. It is called the Chernobyl Angel.

Revelation 8:8-9

Let’s investigate the second trumpet and consider the following evidence. Starting in 1939 and ending in 1945, was the worst disaster the world has ever known, best known as World War II. Because of this war, 52 million people were killed, and it changed the course of history as we know it.

Lets first look at the prophecy of 1/3 of the ships bring destroyed. Research shows that 105,127 ships participated in WWII. Of these, 36,387 ships were destroyed. A quick calculation proves that this equates to 1/3 of the ships which participated in the war being destroyed, just as the Bible says.

The Bible also says that there would be a great mountain burning of fire cast into the sea. If you have seen a nuclear explosion, you might would describe it as a mountain of fire. In an article titled, World War II, The Second Atomic Bomb That Ended the War, a reporter who actually watched the Nagasaki bomb from a plane flying near by described it like this, “Even as we watched, a giant mushroom came shooting out of the top to 45,000 ft. When we last saw it, it had changed its shape into a flower-like form. It’s giant pedals curving downward. Creamy white outside; rose colored inside. The boiling pillar had become a giant mountain.

The events of WWII were so catastrophic, it isn’t to far-fetched to believe that the Bible would prophecy about it. The nuclear explosion at Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the sinking of 1/3 of the ships that participated, makes it seem obvious that the second trumpet prophecy was WWII. This would lead us to consider WWI as a likely candidate for the first trumpet.

Revelation 8:7

Up until the 20th century, there had never been a war with 1 million casualties. WWI was considered the “great war” because by the time it ended, 8.2 million people had died. It was a totally unprecedented war. The Bible says, “and all green grass was burnt up”. During WWI, there was a “scorched earth policy” which stated that if you loose territory, you must burn everything so that no resources are left for the enemy to live off during the war. WWI was the first instance where biological weapons were ever used. Because of these facts, I believe that WWI was the first trumpet.

Revelation 9:1-2

9 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.

2 And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.

Investigating the fifth trumpet, we will see there is only one historical event that has taken place that resembles the prophecy regarding the bottomless pit and the smoke that darkened the sun and air. In 1990, war was waged by coalition forces from 35 nations led by the United States in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait arising from oil pricing and production disputes. The leader of the opposing side was Saddam Hussein. Saddam knew that he was powerless against the forces of United States and its allies, so before he withdrew from Kuwait, he set 700 of the worlds richest oil wells on fire. When these oil wells began to burn, the smoke that the fires had produced, blocked the sun and the sky for over three months. The middle of the day looked like midnight.

If we look at the prophecy we see that this is exactly what John described in verse 2.

Revelation 9:3-9

Here, John describes his vision as best he can without knowing 21st century names and war-craft machinery. John describes locusts prepared for battle whose faces were as faces of men, whose teeth were as the teeth of lions. They seemed to have breastplates of iron which when they moved forward, sounded like many horses running to battle.

Revelation 9:11

11 And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.

Both, Abaddon and Apollyon mean “Destroyer”. In 1991, in an article about Saddam Hussein and the events occurring, appeared on March 10th edition of the German tribune. The reporter of that article referred to Saddam Hussein as, Saddam “The Destroyer” Hussein. About 6 years later in 1997, a human interest’s story about the last Jewish family out of Bagdad appeared in the international edition of the Jerusalem Post. In this article, the reporter explains that Saddam Hussein’s mother had so many problems during childbirth, she decided to name him Saddam because Saddam means “Destroyer”. She felt as if he was destroying her body during childbirth. The Arabic word for Saddam means, “Destroyer”. So the Bible is saying that a man named “Destroyer” is going to unleash the bottomless pit (oil fields) and the sun and air will be darkened by reason of the smoke.

Revelation 8:12-13

Is it possibly that the length of the days (time) have been shortened and us not ever realize it? Let’s investigate the fourth trumpet and see what happens. A conversation was had not long ago between an Apostolic family and a professor at a college as well as an engineer. When asked about this specific account in the Bible, both the professor and engineer concluded that the speeding up of time was very possible. They both presented Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, where time and speed are relative one to another. When one speeds up, the other speeds up. That would help explain what we are discussing here. Therefore, God could have sped up time and we wouldn’t even know it.

Because we know that the seven trumpets occur in chronological order and that the third trumpet (Chernobyl Nuclear Accident) occurred in 1986 and the fifth trumpet (Gulf Was) sounded in 1990, that means that the fourth trumpet had to have sounded between ’86-’90. If we look at the major events that took place that would be relative to the shortening of time, we find that in 1989 in reference to the 10 year anniversary of the falling of the Berlin wall and the beginning of the new world order, Merrill Lynch printed a full page add in the USA Today that said, “ The world is 10 years old today. Congratulations and happy birthday”. Then, Tony Blair from the Tony Blair foundation once stated in a speech, “Globalization began with the fall of the Berlin wall”. The London School of Economics and Political Science published an article in 2009 titled, The Global 1989, The Year That Changed the World. In the article it stated, “1989 may have sped up world historical time, but it marked neither its end nor its beginning. Rather, like the Bionic Man, the post 1989 era is quicker, stronger, and faster. We have seen the acceleration of mean of organizing politics, economics and social life, but not their reformulation”.

Based on the evidence given and lack of other hypothesis available, I believe that the sixth trumpet (speeding up of time) happened around the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Revelation 9:13-21

Let’s recap what we have learned so far. We know that the first five trumpets have already occurred beginning with WWI in 1914. A quick look at the sixth trumpet reveals that this event has not taken place yet. The sixth trumpet sounds the beginning of a great war; the greatest war the world has ever know, killing 1/3 of the world’s population according to the Bible. Let’s investigate the details given by scripture regarding this major event.

The Bible tells us where this war will start in verse 14. When the sixth trumpet sounds, there will be four angles, who are not good angles, loosed from the great river Euphrates. We know that these angles are not good because the Bible says that they have been bound… The Bible also gives us insight into the purpose of the four angles who have been loosed. Their purpose will be to kill 1/3 of the world’s population. Anyone with common sense, being asked, what would be the most likely way to kill 2.4 billion people, would answer with nuclear war. In today's culture with war always being a notable topic and threats of war being waged among the three major nuclear powers, (Russia, China and USA) its only a matter of time before the immature “talk” turns into devastating action. War has been raging up and down the Euphrates river ever sense we invaded Iraq in 2003.

Revelation 11:15-19

The seventh trumpet is described as having four attributes which are the exact same as that of the seventh seal and seventh vial. These four attributes are,’’and there were lightnings, and voices, and thundering's, and an earthquake, and great hail” (Revelation 11:19 KJV). Here is a side by side comparison of the aforementioned:

Revelation 8:5 (Seventh Seal)

5 And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thundering's, and lightnings, and an earthquake.

Revelation 16:18 (Seventh Vial)

18 And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.

Seven Trumpets

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